Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson was recently arrested after reportedly stealing cheese and wine from a Tesco store in London. The Ready Steady Cook star didn’t pay for the items at the self-service checkouts five times in 16 days. In the past also celebrities like Winona Ryder, Caroline Giuliani and Lindsay Lohan were convicted for shoplifting. So why do people end up stealing things they can more than easily afford?
“Thrill. High. A sense of power,” replies Dr Rajat Mitra.
Experts say that when the rich and famous and those who are not cash-strapped steal, it is obviously not about genuinely needing the item that is stolen. It is about seizing the opportunity to momentarily exercise control and feel powerful. “Risk-taking gives a sense of high to such people. Manipulating the system and the idea of getting away with it makes them feel powerful. The more the risk, the better they feel. The bigger the system, the greater the satisfaction. These people don’t get the same high in an abundance of things like relationships or life in general,” explains Dr Mitra.
Kishore Kumar, owner of Rhythm and Blues, a music shop, says that cases of shoplifting rise during festive period and winters. He says, “These are not professional thieves. They act normal and want to see everything on display. And once the attendant is slightly distracted, they quietly slip some items off under their shawl or jacket. It amounts to at least five per cent business loss to us every month,” he says, adding that they are helpless once the customer is out.
One former shoplifter, on the condition of anonymity, told us, “It’s the thrill of doing something one isn’t supposed to and getting away with it, that is addictive. Once during a sale I purchased a few dresses on discount and while leaving the store I quietly slipped in a few jewellery pieces in my bag. Surprisingly the CCTVs failed to catch it and I walked out scot free.”
Sometimes people who shoplift tend to do so because they feel wronged in some way. “There is some connection between the need and deprivation on a deeper level and this abnormal behaviour. People take to such habits because they feel deprived emotionally. While some eat, drink too much or start doing drugs, others do things like stealing, secretly spoiling public property etc to make up for the loss or wrong done to them,” says Dr Sanjeev Mehrotra.